Please give a warm welcome to fellow Bluestocking Belle Jude Knight to my blog on this Fabulous Friday! Let’s sit down with a nice cup of tea and learn a little more about Stephen Redepenning who is sure to give us insight into the many complexities that make him such a determined man!

An interview with Stephen Redepenning, 7th Earl of Chirbury, shortly after he returned to England to take up his title.

What do you consider your greatest achievement? Being accepted by my wife’s people, the Métis. The marriage was a trade agreement; I never expected to find happiness in it. We learned to love one another. Her people, though, held themselves aloof. I didn’t know how to break through their reserve. My wife told me to just be myself.

Then one day, I was out on a hunting expedition with her brothers. I was talking to two of her brothers, and I didn’t know why they were laughing. Then I realised that the youngest brother was behind me, mimicking everything I did. He was good! Did a perfect imitation of a stuck-up Englishman with a walking stick up his… Well, when I laughed too, it broke the ice, and after that we were great friends. I miss them.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Sitting by a fire with my wife holding my hand, bed on our minds, and our children asleep nearby. There’s nothing like it. In fact, looking back, those perfect moments were littered through my life like jewels on a string, and I didn’t value them half enough at the time.

What is your current state of mind? Coldly determined. I don’t expect ever to find happiness again, but I will do my duty, and I will have my revenge.

What is your favorite occupation? Walking through my own woods in the early morning.

What is your most treasured possession? A sash my wife wove for me. She made several, but this one was for special occasions. I wore it when our children were baptised. I wore it at their gravesides. I keep it on my bed, and it is the first thing I touch in the morning.

What or who is the greatest love of your life? My wife. I cannot imagine ever finding that deep sense of companionship with anyone else.

What is your favorite journey? My favourite journey is a short one; down through the woods to the pond where my cousins and I spent summer days when we were boys. The walk reminds me of my childhood.

What is your most marked characteristic? Determination

When and where were you the happiest? In Canada during the years my family were alive

What is it that you most dislike? Injustice of any kind. I hate seeing the strong prey on the weak. It makes me furious when people use their power to hurt others.

What is your greatest fear? That people will find out that I can’t live up to the demands of my role. That things will spiral out of control, and I won’t be able to fix them.

What is your greatest extravagance? Good brandy

Which living person do you most despise? I have little time for people of the ton generally. I don’t much like my nephew, but I consider his father to be a complete waste of space. My sister isn’t a lot better. She is frivolous, silly, and stupid. She makes a huge fuss about a life that doesn’t, to my mind, have anything to recommend it.

What is your greatest regret? Not arriving home in time to protect my wife and children from the Indians who raped my wife and murdered her and my babies.

Which talent would you most like to have? I’d like to be able, just once, to let go and enjoy myself. I’d also like to be able to play the pianoforte. I love to hear it played well, but I don’t have the talent myself.

Where would you like to live? At Longford Court. This is the place I consider home; it’s where my aunt and uncle more or less raised me.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Knowing that I’ve failed to do something it was my duty to do.

What is the quality you most like in a man? Honesty

What is the quality you most like in a woman? The same — but honest women seem very hard to find.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Cowardice. So often, I have to scourge myself to do something I dislike or fear.

What is the trait you most deplore in others? Disloyalty. If someone commits to something, they should do it. I hate turncoats worse than anything.

What do you most value in your friends? Loyalty. I’m slow to trust — experience has taught me that many people are just out for themselves. But once I trust, I give my all, and I expect the same from my friends.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction? Captain Singleton. He had a freedom that I admire. He didn’t care what other people thought; he just lived.

Who are your heroes in real life? My uncle Henry is my hero.

Which living person do you most admire? He’s also the person I most admire. And next to him, I admire my servant, John Price. John is the bravest, most loyal person I know. He has been with me through everything. I have trusted him with my life more times than I can count.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Hope. It’s just hiding your head in the sand. Life ends in tragedy. Everyone dies. Everyone leaves you.

On what occasions do you lie? I seldom lie. I despise lying. But if I need to lie to get my revenge, I’ll do so.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I’d be more spontaneous.

How would you like to die? I’d like to either just slip away in my sleep when I was very very old, or be shot and killed instantly after successfully defending something I believed in.

What is your motto? I protect what is mine — Quod meum defendere.

Jude Knight Bio

Jude Knight started writing fiction when she was still at school, but went on to spend many years as a commercial writer. In late December 2012, she came home from her mother’s funeral determined to finally achieve the dream her mother had always supported.

After more than a year collecting ideas, doing research, and creating plots and character sketches, she stopped procrastinating and started writing. Her first novella was published just before Christmas in 2014, and – to Jude’s awed surprise – hit several Amazon bestseller lists in both the US and the UK, at one point reaching the top 2 in the US and the very top in the UK. 2015 is the year of the novel, with one in April, one in August, and one in October. Jude is also part of a collaborative group of writers, the Blusetocking Belles, so watch for their boxed set just before Christmas 2015.

Jude chose 1 April as the launch date for Farewell to Kindness in honour of all the people who told her that she’d never achieve anything if she didn’t get her head out of a book.

In Jude’s books, you’ll find strong determined heroines, heroes who can appreciate a clever capable woman, and villains you’ll love to loathe. The novel plots tend towards the gothic, with a leavening of humour, and some insights into the similarities and differences between now and way back then.

Jude thinks her Mum would have liked them.

Farewell to Kindness

For three years, Rede has been searching Canada for those who ordered the murders of his wife and children.

Now back in England, he has inherited an Earldom from his cousin George, and is close to finding the investors who ordered the deaths in an attempt to destroy Rede’s fur trading enterprise. He travels to his country estate in Longford, West Gloucestershire, to be close to the investigation.

He does not need the distraction of an overwhelming longing for the lovely widow who lives in one of the cottages he owns. A widow, moreover, with a small daughter whose distinctive eyes mark her as George’s child.

For six years, from the night Anne blackmailed George at arrow-point for an income and a place to live, she has been in hiding with her sisters and daughter.

She hides from the scandal of her daughter’s conception. More importantly, she hides from the Earl of Selby, who has sinister plans for the sisters. He no longer has legal rights as guardian to the older sisters, but the youngest sister is still only 18. He cannot be allowed to find her.

The last thing Anne needs is an inconvenient attraction to the local Earl. Rede is everything she has learned not to trust: a man, a peer, a Redepenning. If he finds out who she is, she may lose everything.

As their attraction builds against a backdrop of the village Whitsun Week festivities, several accidents make Rede believe his enemies have found him, and Anne wonder whether Selby has found her.

To build a future together, they must be prepared to face their pasts together – something their deadly enemies have no intention of allowing.

Farewell to Kindness is Book 1 in the series The Golden Redepennings.

Candle and Min, hero and heroine of my free novella,Candle’s Christmas Chair, make a cameo appearance in Farewell to Kindness.